The Orbis

Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: News/Features

What might be a nose, a piece of an eye and a fraction of an eyebrow light up a towering screen in the night sky. It's only when we roll down our windows that we figure out these bits of features belong to Wayne Coyne, and The Flaming Lips have just launched into "Do You Realize?" As we drive by, we hear a precious 40 seconds of the song before we're careening down Georgia backroads again and seriously doubting there would be so many dump trucks and bulldozers in the media campsite. By the time we roll up to the true campsite, inexplicably labeled as "Bangkok" in our program, The Flaming Lips have already said goodnight. Our first disappointment, but it could only get better from here. We had arrived at the Echo Project.

About 10,000 music fans descended on South Fulton, Ga., outside of Atlanta on the weekend of Oct. 12 for the first Echo Project, a three-day outdoor music festival. Promoted as the country's most eco-friendly music festival, it attempted to partner outstanding musical performances with environmental awareness and community building.

While other outdoor festivals, from Bonnaroo in Tennessee to the Sasquatch Music Festival in Washington, have attempted to reduce their impact through recycling and renewable energy initiatives, the Echo Project worked in conjunction with such an abundant variety of environmentally aware organizations that it seemed like every aspect of the weekend was covered, from the temporary fences constructed out of fast-growing bamboo shoots to the compostable plastic PLA cups made from corn used by beverage vendors. Generators running on biodiesel powered four of the five stages, while the fifth relied on solar energy harvested by mammoth solar panels installed by Sustainable Waves, a business offering green sound and stage alternatives to the entertainment industry.

A portion of ticket revenue went to Trees for the Future, and concert-goers had the option of paying an extra $4 for a "Be Green Ticket" that would purchase 500 killowatt hours of renewable energy, thereby offsetting the estimated 682 pounds of carbon dioxide created by driving a car 758 miles to the festival (it's about 500 miles from Nashville to Atlanta round trip).

In the three weeks leading up the festival, volunteers worked for ticket discounts by cleaning the infamous Chattahoochee River, and groups nation wide sponsored clean-up and tree-planting projects. During the festival, organizers sought to educate, inspire and connect attendees on environmental issues through an assortment of workshops on topics as diverse as medicinal herbs, voter registration, how to start a nonprofit, biodiesel basics and "hooping" (hula hoop-based dance).

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